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Tag: 2015

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many bus and coach drivers were fined for their failure to carry a Driver Qualification Card in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

    Andrew Jones

    Currently, as part of roadside encounters the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) require drivers of Passenger Service Vehicles (PSV) to produce a driver qualification card (DQC). If a driver fails to produce their DQC they will generally be issued with a fixed penalty of £50, this must be paid within 28 days (for drivers with a satisfactory UK address). The driver can, however, choose not to pay the penalty and take the matter to the Magistrate’s court. Also if a driver fails to pay the fixed penalty within the 28 days they will be summons to appear before the Magistrates.

    For the period of 1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014, 99 offences for Driver Continued Professional Competence (CPC) were recorded at the roadside. Of those, 68 resulted in a fixed penalty being issued, totalling £3,300 in fines. The fixed penalties were issued because the driver failed to produce evidence of training or exemption by not carrying their DQC.

    For the period of 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015, 166 offences for Driver CPC were recorded at the roadside. Of those, 119 resulted in a fixed penalty being issued, totalling £5,950 in fines. Again, the fixed penalties were issued for failure to produce their DQC which provides evidence of their training or any exemptions.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by KPMG Skills to Build?, stating that housebuilding capacity could be restricted by a construction skills shortage; and whether they will take steps to increase the amount of education and training places for construction trades.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government has made no separate assessment of the KPMG report. There are a number of reports that provide a good indication of the skills the construction industry believes it will require between 2015 and 2019, for both housing and wider construction.

    The Government values post-16 education, including construction education and training, highly. We have made substantial progress driving up the quality and rigour of the post-16 offer, and area-based reviews of 16+ provision are providing an opportunity for institutions and localities to restructure provision to achieve maximum impact.

    Initiatives, by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), or flowing from the work of the Construction Leadership Council, are seeking to encourage more young people into construction careers including the launch of the GO-Construct website and work with the National Careers Service and Construction Ambassadors for schools. In addition the CITBhas developed a range of initiatives, working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Armed Forces resettlement service and Local Enterprise Partnerships, to encourage experienced individuals into the sector.

    While CITB returned over £42m last year, supporting 18,500 first, second and third year construction apprentices, it is clear that the sector is not currently offering enough apprenticeships nor opportunities for young people to train. The 17,000 apprenticeships starts in 2015/16 is still some way below the 27,000 offered in 2006. The CITB has developed a number of shared apprenticeships schemes and reformed the grant process to encourage apprenticeship take up. In addition, the Government continues to pay AGE grant, on top of its usual support for the training of young apprentices, to encourage companies to take on their first apprentices.

    At the summer budget the Chancellor announced a levy on large employers across all sectors to fund apprenticeships. This will link larger employers directly to its skills investment and promote the value, and drive the uptake, of apprenticeships.

    The Chancellor will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy, including the scope and rate, at the Spending Review.

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of (a) jobseeker’s allowance and (b) employment and support allowance claims were subject to a sanction (i) pre-challenge and (ii) post-challenge in 2013-14.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    The latest Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance sanctions statistics can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

    “

  • Baroness Walmsley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Walmsley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what calculation they have made of how much (1) UK tax has been paid by PFI investors on profits and equity gains, and (2) corporation tax has been collected from PFI companies, in each tax year since the inception of PFI contracts for health service projects.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    HM Treasury does not collect or publish taxation information for any Private Finance company including those within the health sector.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of UK businesses that do not have access to broadband with speeds above 24Mbps.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report 2015, published on 1 December 2015, superfast broadband coverageis now available to 68% of small and medium businesses (SMEs) – up from 56% last year– a very substantial increase.

    In addition, the £40 million government-funded Broadband Connection Voucher Schemehas benefitted well over 50,000 SMEs,who employ up to 1 million people across the UK; and we are on track to hit 95% superfast broadband coverage across the UK by 2017. In addition, the PM recently announced the ambition to give people the legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live.

  • Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department intends to take to reduce the number of children who do not attend school due to bullying.

    Edward Timpson

    No child should be frightened of going to school because they might be bullied.

    All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying and they are held closely to account by Ofsted for their effectiveness. Inspectors consider pupil behaviour and welfare, including how well schools prevent and tackle bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour.

    We are also providing a total of £1.3 million of funding over 12 months from April 2015 to the Diana Award, Kidscape and the National Children’s Bureau to work with schools to prevent bullying and deal with its impact when it occurs. This is in addition to the £4 million provided in 2013/15. We are also providing £2 million this year to help schools tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

    Good schools create an ethos of good behaviour where pupils treat each other and staff with courtesy and respect. Where bullying does happen schools should move to tackle it and provide support for the bullied child. We issued advice to schools last year to help them identify children that may be most vulnerable to bullying and how to provide support to ensure their mental health and wellbeing. This is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

    “

  • Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to what purposes the ring-fenced capital budget for the carbon capture and storage competition has been reallocated.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government set out its capital budget and priorities for this Spending Review period on 25 November 2015.

  • Edward Miliband – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Edward Miliband – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Miliband on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of families who will have marginal deduction rates over (a) 50, (b) 60, (c) 70, (d) 80 and (e) 90 per cent in 2015-16; and what his projections of those figures are for each year to 2020-21.

    Damian Hinds

    We are unable to provide this analysis to a sufficiently robust standard.

    The government will simplify the process of applying for and receiving benefits by moving welfare claimants to the Universal Credit (UC) system. UC will get rid of the worst aspects of the legacy system by replacing six working-age benefits with one, improving incentives for people to work and to work more.

  • Mike Weir – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Mike Weir – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Weir on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will meet representatives of the Association of British Travel Agents and consumer groups to discuss changes to rules applying to penalty-free cancellation during periods of regional airstrikes by British forces.

    James Duddridge

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issues travel advice to help British nationals make their own informed decisions about foreign travel. We keep our travel advice under constant review and will update it according to any changes in our assessment of the threat to British nationals around the world. Although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office maintains a dialogue with Association of British Travel Agents about how the travel advice affects their members’ business, it is not the role of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to intervene in the regulation of the market by discussing changes to the rules applying to penalty-free cancellation.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations his Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.

    Brandon Lewis

    I refer the hon. Member to the response provided by my rt. hon. Friend, the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise (Anna Soubry) on 11 November 2015, PQ 15037.